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Instead of penalizing change, why not encourage it? When you work from home, you don't put anywhere near the carbon into the atmosphere that you would commuting
by maxharris 6y ago
Instead of penalizing change, why not encourage it? When you work from home, you don't put anywhere near the carbon into the atmosphere that you would commuting. You also spend a lot less on lunch, and you don't need to put your children into state-run schools that are really there to function as daycare centers as much as they are to educate.
If all of that office space in downtown areas stays dark, and the zoning laws are altered or removed, it can be redeveloped into housing that's actually affordable.
We really are running into a wall on the methane crisis, and we we simply don't have the time to integrate these changes at a slower pace.
Let's focus on changing our regulations that prohibit building neighborhoods for pedestrians. Let's work on getting homes with solar roofs and big batteries. Let's get drone delivery everywhere. Let's electrify the transport system with electric cars, electric trucks, eVTOL aircraft. Let's tunnel underneath and between cities and connect them with hyperloops. Let's connect people in rural areas with low-cost, low-latency satellite internet access.
Doing these things will directly provide a great number of jobs for a great number of people. It will make a great number of new jobs possible. It will improve the natural environment. I think this is a much more positive direction to take than to try to slow things down.
- nefitty 6y agoI think this is an immune response by capital. If people don’t need multiple spaces for living, that has a big impact on the people who own property and land. Shifting to things like drone delivery, etc, which I think is a great idea, would be an imposition to edified capital interests. I am pessimistic that our system has the will or momentum to shift toward what individual laborers and human groups need, but it is heartening to see that the fight itself is becoming so overt.
- imtringued 6y agoDeutsche Bank obviously wants this tax to prop up real estate. This is a general unemployment problem yet they somehow suggest a tax that is supposed to make one type of worker worse off even though every worker should be taxed to help the unemployed? The irony is that we are in an economic situation in which we actually need the opposite: Tax cuts everywhere.
- xlm1717 6y agoThey can't help but penalize change. Work from home is a change that is resulting in much lower tax revenue, and they need new income streams to make up for it. "It argues this is only fair, as those who work from home are saving money and not paying into the system like those who go out to work." They simply need more people to "pay into the system" again.
- fyfy18 6y agoShould we also penalize people who cycle to work, and pack their lunch at home? On paper they are no different than people working from home.
- FreshFries 6y agoEvery option is on the table, when we're "not paying into the system", but your examples are not the issue discussed in the article.
- inquirerofsorts 6y ago> your examples are not the issue discussed in the article From TFA: "By working from home, people aren't paying for public transport or eating out at restaurants near their places of work" It's exactly what the GP comment referenced.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- me_me_me 6y agoMaybe they should consider taxing the office space since businesses do not need to pay for it when most of their staff works from home. Taxation of WFH people is like taxing vegetarians because the tax revenue from sugar tax is too low. Edit: Also fuck banks, of course their employees suggest taxing the middle class.
- 6y ago
- cskinner 6y agoI wonder how large Deutsche Bank's exposure to the office space market is. People who WFH will still spend a similar amount of money, just on different things and in different places.
- nivenkos 6y agoIt's Germany, penalizing change is what they do best. Paying a flat tax on all writeable media to fund GEMA. Having to use Sofortüberweisung for online payments, etc.
- tjansen 6y agoIn Germany many people are already penalized for working from home, because the tax exempts for commuting are quite generous.
- rad_gruchalski 6y agoNo, it’s not. Quote from the article: “... wrote Deutsche Bank strategist Luke Templeman.” Looking him up on LinkedIn shows he is working in London since 2009, at DB since 2015, did an MBA in NSW, Australia and another one at LBS in London.